The Royal Family is set to take legal advice after Piers Morgan named the two senior members at the centre of a racism row on TV.
Omid Scobie ’s new book Endgame was released this week and caused shockwaves as an edition in the Netherlands appeared to mistakenly reveal the identities of the two royals accused of making derogatory remarks about the colour of Prince Harry and Meghan unborn son, Archie. In a paragraph not included in the English version, a Dutch preview edition seemed to name both Royals at the centre of a race storm sparked in 2021 when The Duke and Duchess of Sussex accused an unnamed senior royal of expressing “concern” about their child’s complexion.
Last night, Piers Morgan announced the names on his TalkTV show, adding he does not believe "any racist comments were ever made by any member of the Royal Family", after thousands of copies of a Dutch version of Endgame by Omid Scobie were pulled. The Mirror has chosen not to name the pair. Buckingham Palace is understood to be “considering all options”, including legal action.
The author, often referred to as “Meghan’s pal”, due to their relationship before the release of his book Finding Freedom about Harry and Meghan’s departure from The Firm, said he knew the names, but legal restrictions in the UK barred him from publishing them.
He said: “Having only written and edited the English version of Endgame, I can only comment on that manuscript, which does not name the two individuals who took part in the conversation. I’m happy to hear that the error in the translation of the Dutch edition is being fixed.”
But royal sources dismissed the explanation as “nonsense”, after it was revealed one complete section appeared in the Dutch version of the book that was absent from the English copy. One source said: “As with much of this book, which has ranged from wild conspiracy theories to total mistruths and slighted opinion, all is not what it seems. There is an understanding regarding translation of texts that may contain the odd error, a rather blinding one in this case, but whole paragraphs of mistruths? Surely it’s complete nonsense.”
Palace aides were said to be still scrambling for information as to how excerpts in the Dutch version could have appeared as an “error” from a translated text. Mr Scobie, who is due to give his first UK interview on Thursday on ITV ’s This Morning , has denied including the names, insisting he was not responsible for translated passages in foreign publications.
Mr Scobie’s book was pulled from sale in the Netherlands while the Dutch publishers said they had been ordered by US bosses to put sales “on hold”. A statement said: “Xander Uitgevers is temporarily withdrawing the book Eindstrijd by Omid Scobie from sale. An error occurred in the Dutch translation and is currently being rectified.”